CONCILIATION COURT.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LX, Issue 143764, 12 April 1912, Page 6

CONCILIATION COURT.

SITTING .AT NEW PLYMOUTH. GENERAL LABOURERS’ DISPUTE. The sitting of the Conciliation Court to hear the dispute of the New Plymouth General Labourers’ Union was resumed in the Borough Council • Chambers on Thursday afternoon. Mr. T. Harle Giles, Conciliation Commissioner for the Northern and Taranaki Industrial District, presided’, and Mr. Grenfell, secretary of the Employers’ Association, , Wellington, appeared for the employers. The union was not represented. The assessors wore: for the union, Messrs. M. J. Reardon and E. Kennedy, of Wellington, and G. E. Roper, of New Plymouth; and for the employee, Messrs. W. F. Brooking, Jas. Clarke, and F. Grayling, ail of Now Plymouth. APPLICATIONS FOR EXEMPTION. On behalf of the employers, Mr. Grenfell made application that the following parties cited should be struck out: Henry Brown and Co., New Plymouth Sash and Door Factory, New Plymouth Harbour Board, New Plymouth Borough Council, New Plymouth Gas Company, New Zealand Express Company, the Taranaki Petroleum Company, the Taranaki County Council, and the Taranaki Producers’ Freezing Works Company. In regard to Henry Brown and Co. and the New Plymouth Sash and Door Company, Mr. Grenfell said that if they were to be attached to any award it should bo to the timber workers’ award. With regard to the Harbour Board, bo said that the grounds for exemption" wore that it employed a variety of workers, was operating in the interests of the general public, was in no way in competition with other works, and was not really engaged in any industry. The same remarks applied to the Borough Council and tbe Gas Company. The New Zealand Express Company did not employ general labourers. In tho case of tho Petroleum Company the men were being well treated, as they were earning up to £3 17s per week. To Mr. Reardon; The rate of pay was not less than Is per hour, Mr. Reardon: That means that to earn £8 17s they have to work 77 hours I

Exemption was claimed for tho County Council, continued Mr. Grenfell, on tho grounds that the work carried out by £hat body was for the safety and convenience of the public. Referring to tho Producers’ Freezing Works Company, he stated that its employees were not labourers in the ordinary sense of tho worth If any, they should bo attached to the freezing works award. Consideration of tho applications was deferred till a later stage. Opportunity was taken by the union assessors to urge that several of the local bodies referred to had had tho chance of coming to separate agreements with the union, but had failed to do so. THE UNION’S DEMANDS. The demands of the union stipulate that tho hours worked shall he 47 each week, at the following rates of wages:— Tnnnel work: All workers in tunnels, or workers in foul.air, Is 6d per hour; all workers sinking shafts over six feet deep in connection with tunnels, Is 6d per hour. Road-forming and metalling, concrete workers, bricklayers’ labourers, quarrymen, drainage and sewerage workers, scaffolders, and all workers working in wet places, Is 4jd per hour. General labourers; Labourers employed on work not hereinbefore mentioned shall be paid at the rate of Is 3d por hour. Provision is also made for overtime, hours of commencing work, holidays, suburban and country works, workmen unable to earn the minimum wage, and preference to unionists. THE EMPLOYERS’ COUNTER PROPOSALS, The employers, in their counter proposals, set down the number of hours to be worked as 48, to be fixed by the employer to suit his own particular business. The minimum wages are stipulated as follow:—Tunnel work; Tunnel men and timber men, 10s por shift; all others employed underground, 9s per shift. ! Quarry work: Powder men, hammer and drill men, and jumper men, Is Id per hour; all other workers engaged in quarry work, Is per hour. Labourers employed in connection with tho erection, alteration, or demolition of any building, or in excavating or preparing ground for the same, shall be paid not less than Is per hour; labourers engaged in the construction of scaffolds shall, for the time they are employed on such work, be paid not less than Is Ijd per hour. General work; Labourers employed in concrete work, pick and shovel work, sower work, kerbing and channelling work, laying and cleaning drains, and asphalt and tar work, Is ger hour. Thpre is no mention of preference, but under tho heading of “discrimination” the employers ask that where members of tho union and nonmembers are employed together they shall work together in harmony, and that there shall be no discrimination between members and non-members. In the event of a strike tho employers urge that the award should be nullified. Tho court sat all day and was resumed again this morning.